


One Day at a Time

by VelvetRose529



Category: Naruto
Genre: Abduction, Kidnapping, Major part of the story and all that but no way am I actually writing it, Tags Are Hard, The rape isn't graphic or anything, There is a difference FYI but not everyone knows that, i'll add more if i think of them, it's just there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2018-11-14 15:15:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11210733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VelvetRose529/pseuds/VelvetRose529
Summary: Team Konohamaru was told this would simple. An easy mission. Take this to the Hidden Sand and then return. But when you're a child of the original Rookie 9, you can't expect things to go according to plan. And if any of your parents were on Team 7?Well in the words of Naruto Abridged:HAHAHAHA Good luck.





	1. Routine Mission

_It was a routine mission._

She kept repeating that over and over as she looked around her. She repeated it in her head as she beat the door with her fists. Ignoring the blood that began to fall from them as they squeezed tighter and her nails dug into her flesh, she continued to repeat the words in her head.

_It was a routine mission._

As she tried, and failed, to activate her Sharingan.

_It was a routine mission._

As her neck, wrists, and ankles hurt as she attempted to move her chakra through her body.

_It was a routine mission._

As she collapsed to the ground out of sheer exhaustion.

_It was a routine mission._

It became her mantra. Because there was no way she’d missed this in the ‘fine print’ of the mission description.

_It was a routine mission._

**24 Hours Earlier**

“Why doesn’t he just send an email? Or pull an Uncle Sasuke and use a hawk? Or just call the Kazekage?”

Sarada would normally give a retort, but she didn’t have one. Sending three chunin on a mission to deliver a message to one of the five Kage? Sure it sounded official and important, but Lord Seventh hadn’t really given a good reason for sending them. It also didn’t make sense that he had insisted against them taking the train, the trip took three days by foot! One would think an important memo should be delivered as quickly as possible. Instead, Mitsuki decided to give his ten ryo on the subject.

“Perhaps this message is top secret and needs to be more safely guarded? Phones and emails can be easily intercepted or hacked. And a hawk can be knocked out of the sky. Even Sarada’s father only uses his hawk for simple messages. He returns to the village to deliver more important information.” The two boys missed Sarada’s mood darken slightly at the mention of her father, and continued the conversation.

“Still doesn’t explain why he told us not to take the train,” Boruto continued.

“We would be enclosed with civilians, higher risk of casualties if someone should try to take it and start a fight. And three active duty shinobi on the train is suspicious, it’s much more common to see us on the ground. Not to mention the ease of being able to steal something and just hop off the train before we even knew it was gone.”

“… We can’t just complain with you, can we Mitsuki?”

“I assumed you wanted an answer.”

“Well… I mean kinda, but… It is still just annoying that he sent us.” It seemed as though Mitsuki had a comment, but Sarada was rather tired of the talking. She sighed and spoke generally, not bothering to face her comrades.

“Do we need to keep talking about this?” The boys glanced at their female teammate before ceasing the discussion. They were likely just surprised she’d spoken seeing as she’d gone radio silent for most of the discussion. And aside from the occasional comment or check in, they continued in a companionable silence. A silence that continued as the darkness closed in. They located a clearing just large enough to set up camp and got to work, able to do so with minimal communication.

They had to avoid being overheard after all.

Before long they had two tents set up and perimeter of trapped wiring. If anyone attempted to enter the camp they would trip the wire and alert the sleeping shinobi. Sarada took control of protecting the scroll for the night, and got to sleep in her tent. The boys settled down into their own tent and drifted off as well.

The next morning came quickly, and the three chunin dismantled the camp quickly, preparing to leave during the first light of day (not that there was much of it poking through the trees). Sarada passed off the scroll to Mitsuki and set about disengaging the tripwire perimeter. She’d just finished packing the last of it away when a sudden blow knocked her into a nearby tree. She groaned as she stood up quickly, ignoring the throbbing in her head and instead reaching for her kunai pouch.

“Who’s there?” She called out, unable to see her attacker. No need to overexert her use of the Sharingan when it would be much more useful in battle. Besides, the noise should signal her teammates that something was wrong and get them to find her. Just as she heard the sounds of Mitsuki and Boruto (she would know their footsteps anywhere), a figure began to approach her from the trees. Her grip tightened around her kunai.

“My name really isn’t all that important at the moment.” Sarada watched a man emerge, no longer shrouded in shadows, she could finally make out his face. He was in his late twenties or early thirties if she had to take a guess. But it was definitely a face she didn’t recognize. And he was looking at her as if she was a piece of meat. Somehow she had a feeling that he had no interest in the scroll her team was transporting, but rather… Her.

And she had to admit… It kind of creeped her out.

“Well what do you want?”

“Judging by the look you’re giving me I think you’ve already figured it out.”

“You want me.” He gave her a look, a weird smile that sent shivers down her spine. But she ignored them for the sake of everyone involved. She wasn’t going to just spend the rest of the trip running from this guy just because he creeped her out too much for her to want to go near him. Three against one, they simply had to incapacitate him and call for a pickup. If she remembered correctly there was a village only a couple of hours out from here that had a Shinobi guard detail. They could keep their eye on him until ANBU could make the trip. That wouldn’t be too difficult.

Step One: Incapacitate.

She and her teammates had been together for four years now, friends and comrades for quite a while. They knew each others ins and outs, strengths and weaknesses. They weren’t having slumber parties and braiding each others hair or anything but they were in tune with each others movements. Sarada could tell what was going to happen by which way Mitsuki stepped or how deep of a breath Boruto took. And they could tell what she was going to do in much the same way. They were a well oiled machine by now, and one man who looked as if he was not a high ranking shinobi would be a piece of cake.

Predictably quickly, the man was overcome with shadow clones. In a quick incapacitation (Genin level or below) it would usually only require minimal effort. Shadow clones were a perfect distraction. Sarada then merely had to throw a succession of shurikan followed by which Mitsuki would replace himself with one of the shurikan and wrap himself around the target. Boruto and Sarada would follow up with ninja wiring for a complete tie up, and if the target was particularly annoying it was child’s play to place him/her in a calming genjutsu to prevent any further movement.

However all of that can only happen if every step goes according to plan. And nine times out of ten it does. However, none of the three Chunin could have predicted what happened on the second step of their incapacitation.

The shurikan never reached their intended target.

They were smacked out of the air by other ninja tools, and when the thrower of the original weapons looked to see the defender, she saw three ninja. Lines were scratched through their forehead protectors, all from the land of Rivers, and she had a sinking feeling this battle had just taken a turn. Because what she thought was a simple task that would take upwards of fifteen minutes, was now something entirely different.

She heard something behind her and when she turned to face the other direction, she realized there were three more. Seven against three. The odds had just turned out of their favor in a disastrous way. And while part of her thought they should find a way to move this battle somewhere more in the favor (i.e. with more Konoha ninja), she had the sinking suspicion they wouldn’t fall for it.

So she did the only thing she could think might actually work and threw weapons at the offending shinobi

She wasn’t about to make assumptions about them but she had a feeling, based on their reaction time, they were outranked as well as outnumbered.

“Boruto! Mitsuki!” The boys knew not to look at their teammate yet, but rather at their surroundings. And they were quick to notice the problem too. However, as soon as she spoke, the ninja jumped down and it turned into a battle less of tactic and more of _get these men away from me as fast as possible_.

Kunai hit kunai and shurikan lodged themselves into trees and body parts. But the Chunin were becoming exhausted from the fight. It seemed the group of six were actually a group of nine as three more ninja joined in when the young shinobi were tiring out. Sarada barely had time to question the existence of so many defected ninja when she felt her arms become pressed to her sides.

They had her tied up.

_Shit!_

She tried to break free but they just pulled tighter. And when she felt her skin begin to break she knew it was not a good time to start testing her strength. Instead she called out to her teammates once more, in a last ditch desperate attempt to get help as one of the three goons picked her up like a sack of potatoes. They turned, not that she could see, and rather than be able to help, were able to simply watch as she was carried to the original Mr. Creepy.

And was thunked, quite unceremoniously, onto the back of what she would only assume was a horse. She tried to look around with no luck, but felt something jab into her neck. It hurt, but she wasn’t going to let anyone in on that. She heard her teammates calling her name, felt as shadow clone after shadow clone attempted to get close but were quickly puffed from existence, as her brain slowly mellowed itself. Calm, calm calm…

And everything went black.


	2. It's Not Forever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter does contain some... I don't really want to say graphic imagery but highly implied beginnings of rape near the end. Just a warning.

**Day One**

Mitsuki and Boruto were finally alone, and they were never more upset about it in their lives.

As soon as the ninja left them, clearly they were just told to stick around long enough to prevent a close follow, the two of them ran in the direction of their captured teammate. Both of them had the same thoughts in their heads. Protect Sarada. Protect the Sharingan. Prevent instant death via Sasuke Uchiha by finding her before he realizes what they let happen.

They both knew what the former ex-nin was capable of. Had seen it and heard the tales (at least the parts of the tales that Sasuke let the kids know about, the man had a lot of secrets). And while they truly cared about Sarada and that was at the forefront of their minds, they both knew deep down that they were as good as dead if her father learned of the events of the day. It was long after the sun had reached it’s peak when Mitsuki stopped Boruto. He knew something that they both knew but were too stubborn to admit.

The two wheezing Shinobi were ill-equipped for a search and rescue. They quickly returned the former campsite-turned-battlefield and marked it with a seal. A crude imitation of Boruto’s grandfather’s flying thunder god technique. It wouldn’t work by any stretch of the imagination but they needed the marking to show whoever got there that they had the right place. And this was the best way they felt they could do it.

“We need to get home.”

“We need to finish the mission.” Boruto wasn’t sure what was going through his teammates head, surely Sarada was more important right now!

“Mitsuki-”

“Boruto, we’re closer to Suna right now. We’re two days out from Konoha, we’re a day out from Suna. We can get to Suna, deliver the message, and contact your father from there. He doesn’t need us back in Konoha to put together a tracking team.” Boruto wanted to argue but he knew Mitsuki was right. Sarada had been taken nearly six hours ago. And he didn’t want to think about what could be happening to her at the moment. The sooner a team was sent out the better.

“Alright. But I don’t want to stop.” Mitsuki gave him a look.

“You say that like _I_ do.” He grabbed the bag and held it open. He didn’t even need to say anything else. They both pulled out soldier pills and took them, before heading off in the Direction of Sunagakure. They would turn a twenty+ hour trip into eighteen at the maximum if it meant getting Sarada home sooner.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sarada’s eyes opened slowly. She couldn’t be sure how long she’d been asleep, or even what exactly had caused her to fall asleep in the first place. Or, at least, she had no memory of what had occurred. She remembered a fight, and nothing more. But she was quick to notice a few things that were… Wrong.

One: She wasn’t in her bedroom or a hospital room.

Two: She also wasn’t in a tent.

Three: She definitely did not own the clothes that were currently on her body.

Her usual outfit was gone. Replaced with some sort of lacy blouse that you could see right through and a black bra that she _definitely_ hadn’t seen before. There was also a black skirt with a large slit up it and black heeled boots with laces. Whoever dressed her had one goal in mind and the very thought made her extremely nauseous. When she tried to bring chakra to her eyes she felt a burning pain in her neck and stopped instantly.

She grabbed at her throat, the pain not subsiding as quickly as she would have liked. She stood up, she needed a mirror, she could only see her body. But she definitely felt some kind of jewelry on her wrists and neck, and it almost felt as though something was digging into her ankles beneath the thick fabric of the boots. She looked around the room, the bed she had been laying on (which was actually rather comfortable) was pushed off into the left hand corner. Across the room from the foot of the bed was a dresser, with a handheld mirror on it. Next to the dresser was a closet, separate from the build of the room, and she was almost nervous to see what was in it. The wall next to that one was the one with the door, and next to that was what looked like some sort of desk with a mirror attached.

And when she looked closer she realized the desk was covered in makeup.

She felt sick, not that that was much different from the feeling she’d had when she'd woken up. There was only one reason she could think of that involved being locked up but also needing makeup and the idea was not a pleasant one. She heard the door open and ran towards it, but was stopped by a ninja, who held her upper arms as she fought to get out of the room. She tried to get chakra to her hands but the same burning sensation happened at her wrists where the bracelets were. She tried again with her feet, but once again the moment her chakra reached her ankles there was a burning pain. She gripped her hands into fists, determined to fight him off.

“Where am I, and what the hell do you want from me!?”

_And why the hell did you dress me like this?!_

“You treat me like a savage.” He acted as though his imprisoning of her was for her own protection. Like she was just some whiny toddler, upset because she’d been grounded for eating a cookie before dinner. Except… Creepier.

“You took me against my will.” The man in front of her crossed his arms, as if to scold her. She fought against the ninja holding her back, she just wanted to go after him. The ninja gripped tighter and she gritted her teeth. It was starting to hurt.

“You didn’t give me much choice.” Sarada fought the urge to laugh at him. Instead, she forced a neutral face and voice and spoke.  
“Just tell me why I’m here.”

“You know, you’re quite rude. You haven’t even asked my name.” She rolled her eyes, what was he trying to do?

“I don’t care.”

“You’ll change your mind.”

“I doubt that.” The man glanced at the door, before turning around and knocking on it. The ninja let her go and went to the door as if waiting for something.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t run.” Sarada didn’t know what he meant until the door opened. Damn the consequences, she didn’t know what they were anyway, she ran towards the door. It was only open enough for the ninja to leave and was closed before she could make it out. The man shook his head, clicking his tongue as he did so. “I told you you shouldn't do that.”

“You still haven’t told me why you brought me here.”

“Well, that’s very simple. I want the Sharingan.”

“If you want it then why didn’t you take it while I was unconscious?” Sarada wasn’t sure why she said that. She should be thankful he hadn’t, and just left it alone. Maybe he was intending to take it now now that she’d said something. But it seemed all her assumptions were wrong.

“Oh I don’t want yours specifically. I want to increase the amount of people who have it. On my terms of course.” That urge to vomit came back again, and perhaps if she’d eaten something she would. But because she couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten, she had a feeling there was nothing for her body to bring up.

“So, what, you wanted some Sharingan sex slave?” He almost looked… Offended. And Sarada was bothered by that on so many levels. You don’t get to creepily take a sixteen year old girl into a room that may or may not be underground, imprison her, and then get _offended_ when she assumes she’s being used for sex. Especially after changing her into clothes that left her at borderline child pornography levels of exposed.

“It’s more than that, Sarada-Chan.” She cringed at the use of such a familiar honorific from him. “Don’t look at it as being a sex slave. View it as an early start to having children.” Her eyes widened, she sort of knew that was what he was aiming for when he talked about increasing the amount of people with the Sharingan. but to hear it out loud? Spoken so bluntly? Shivers went up and down her spine, and she honestly felt like she was about to fall over.

“If you think I’m just going to have sex with you-”

“I didn’t think that at all. It’ll take a few tries but you’ll come to enjoy it… Eventually. But I’m going to have to ease you into it of course.” Seriously, Sarada needed to puke. She wanted to puke. And was almost upset that her body wasn’t actually doing it. “It just takes time, Sarada-Chan.” She had to ignore it. Ignore it, ignore him, pretend none of this was real. It would make it easier, she was certain of it.

“But before we get started, I want to make sure you understand the rules.” Somehow Sarada had a feeling this wasn’t going to involve safe words, or even the word ‘stop’. “ I will feed you a healthy diet to ensure the higher probability of conception. I will also have you checked out once a week by our resident Medic Ninja to make sure you’re healthy. You will only leave this room to shower when _I_ say you can. You have a toilet and sink in here for all other bathroom purposes. You will always be dressed for me. If you try to escape when the door, I tie you to the bed. If I suspect you are hiding food to prevent staying healthy, I will have to use other methods to feed you. And once we conceive, do not expect that you will be exempt from providing me with pleasure. I do have needs.”

Sarada was terrified right now. He’d told her if she tried to escape he would tie her to the bed, and she could only assume that included just now. She couldn’t believe she’d been kidnapped for the sole purpose of being a human baby factory. She was only as good as her eyes and her uterus. And yet, somehow, it seemed like he also was… attracted to her. And that was not helping any of the sick feelings that had just been building as he continued to talk to her.

“And one last thing before we begin,” he started as he made his way towards her closet/armoire set. “That door only opens from the outside, and is made of solid steel. Even your mother would need chakra to break it. So I wouldn’t even try. I don’t want to have to get my Medic Ninja to heal a broken hand because you tried to leave. Besides, it’s like I said, you’ll learn to like this.” He gave her a creepy smile, as he unraveled the rope he’d gotten from the closet.

He started to tie her to the bed and she shut her eyes as tightly as she could. She didn’t want to see anything, didn’t want to remember anything. If she could just pretend this was a dream, she would. Besides, she wouldn’t be here for long. Someone would come and find her soon, Boruto and Mitsuki wouldn’t just let her rot here forever. They would have alerted someone, a team would be searching for her.

_It’s not forever._

_It’s not forever._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, guys! That's two chapters in the books! So I do have a basic idea of where this is going, and hopefully future chapters will be longer because there will be more perspectives and the days will be 'longer'. If you find any mistakes let me know, if I stare at anything for more than like five hours total time I start to miss things. I would have to leave it alone for a few days to notice something, and I really want to get you as much as I can when I'm not super busy. I am determined. I will finish this.
> 
> Also I design every one of Sarada's outfits on Polyvore before describing the outfits, if there's any interest in seeing those let me know and I will link here in end notes!


	3. Search & Rescue

**Day 2**

When Sarada woke up next she was still tied to the bed. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep, how long she’d been tied up, or how much longer it would be until he came back to untie her. She glanced over at the toilet in the room, hoping it’ll be soon. The one thing she did know for certain was that she needed the toilet, and in order to use it she would need to be untied. And all her attempts to free herself had been useless.

And while she was trying to forget the night before, she at least needed to remember one thing. The man who had taken her, his name was Daiki. And he’d told her that if she didn’t use his name she would be punished, and after last night, punishment was something she was going to try and avoid. It would only be a few more days, she was sure of it. She didn’t want to make things worse for herself when she knew it wouldn’t be long before someone found her. If she just kept her head low and did as she was told… Well perhaps then things would be painless enough.

Konoha did have some of the best tracking teams, and with the good relationship between the five villages, it was likely they would be sending the best. There was no need to make sure the best was saved for skirmishes between villages anymore. There was peace enough that even the best ween’t being used to their full potential. Not that she felt she desperately needed/deserved the best, but something told her that her Uncle Naruto would be doing his best to avoid the wrath of Sasuke Uchiha. Wrath that would definitely be unleashed if he found out his only daughter was missing.

It seemed like Sasuke was only a father when the ‘situation arose’.

Sarada tried not to think about it too much, she knew Sasuke loved her. It just seemed like he didn’t want to be around for the ‘boring’ stuff. Her growing up, her little achievements. He hadn’t even really been watching her at the Chunin exams, at least that was what it felt like. Sure he was _there_ but… Was he watching any of the exams or did he show up just in time to almost see her get crushed? Yeah, he’d saved her life, would clearly put himself in danger if it meant protecting her, but in the long run what did that really mean? In the big picture… How much did he really care?

She didn’t like falling down this rabbit hole, questioning her father’s loyalties to their family. The first time she’d done it she’d followed Lord Seventh to see him, then yelled at Sasuke for not being around. And sure, Boruto yelled at his dad dad all the time, but he had that time with him. Chances to apologize, hug and make up. Lord Seventh was busy but he was _home_. Sasuke… Sasuke was in the village less than he was out of the village. And Sarada was an adult, she couldn’t just follow him around like a lost puppy. She had her own responsibilities now.

Although, that had all come to a screeching halt yesterday (at least she assumed it was yesterday).

She would be willing to bet it would take ages before he knew she was even missing. Mama would know, but would he? Or would he show up just in time to see her back home? Or, even worse, days or even weeks later having no idea what the hell she’d been put through. Just the last day or so was torture enough for her, and she knew she had more time before Konoha would be able to send out a team, and even more time before they found her.

She didn’t have time to think further about it, because the door opened and in walked Daiki. She looked at him, giving her best ‘kicked puppy’ expression so he would untie her. And whether or not it was the reason, five minutes later the ropes were untied and she was free. As he untied her he apologized for tying her up, saying it was a necessary precaution, but as she grew more comfortable here she wouldn’t be so resistant and he wouldn’t need to restrain her.

She was positive she would never be comfortable here, but she wasn’t about to argue her point while he was freeing her. Pick your battles and all that.

He had also brought in food, what looked like breakfast food, though she hadn’t looked all that closely. He kissed her cheek, as if they were some kind of couple, and knocked on the door again, eyeing her the whole time. As if daring her to move so he could tie her up again later. Or now. Whatever he preferred. Which was sort of against what he’d use been saying, but she didn’t think too hard about it. Besides, she wasn’t going anywhere. She had no desire to be tied up again.

So when the door opened, she restrained herself. If he tied her up she’d never get to go to the bathroom (thankfully he hadn’t insisted on sticking around for that), or eat. Although she had been wondering if eating then throwing it up would be a way to keep herself from being healthy enough to conceive. She really had no intentions of having a child with Daiki, she’d sooner kill herself before she let him have her or the Sharingan. But she squashed that thought quickly when she remembered the medic ninja he’s talked about. The ninja would know if she was purging the food from her stomach, and then what would they do to her?

She decided she’d do it if she wasn’t found as soon as she was anticipating.

Once he left she used the toilet, stripped, and immediately went over to the sink. The breakfast sat untouched for the moment, she had to wash herself off. She felt absolutely disgusting after what he’d done to her last night and she needed to do _something_ to feel clean again. She turned on the water to it’s hottest setting (something told her it wouldn’t be all that hot but it was better than nothing), chucked the clothes from before into a basket he’d provided last night, and started scrubbing her entire body with lukewarm water. A lack of soap meant this was all she was going to get. But she really didn’t care, it was making her feel a little better and that was all that mattered.

Once she was sufficiently ‘clean’, she went over to the closet and finally started digging through the clothes. As it turned out, she’d been provided with lots of different types of clothes, some even meant for comfort. And the sizes got slightly bigger, meaning Daiki had planned ahead, knowing of course that he intended for her to get pregnant. And, of course, knowing that if/when it happened, she would need more stomach room in her clothes.

She was really glad the breakfast was still untouched right about now.

She pulled on a sweater that looked like it would fit, it was pink and had a rather large heart on it. And for her pants, she grabbed a pair of pajama shorts (they were all shorts, unfortunately), and found some slipper flip flop things at the bottom of the closet. She felt slightly less disgusting in what she could consider to be ‘home clothes’, and sat back down on the bed. She finally looked at the food she’d been given and realized it was eggs. Well… Looked like she would be eating cold eggs today.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 

Mitsuki was trying his best to keep Boruto from running to Suna, and he was starting to think he would be deserving of a medal after this trip was over.

As much as the two young men wanted to so desperately get to Sunagakure in order to deliver the scroll and get in contact with Lord Seventh and tell him to get a team out to get Sarada, they’d been stopped. Not by more ninja, though. In fact, they hadn’t run into anyone else on their journey. No, the boys had been stopped by a sandstorm of all things. So Mitsuki, while trying to prevent Boruto from getting himself killed, was also listening to him say that the universe was against them helping Sarada.

Mitsuki wouldn’t go that far, but it _was_ fairly unlucky for them to be caught in a sandstorm.

He was certain it wouldn’t last much longer, though. And the moment it cleared up, they would be back to running to Sunagakure. They would save Sarada, if it was the last thing they did. And Mitsuki wasn’t risking a suicide mission of going out into the storm to do it. As much as he wanted to join Boruto and just get out there and help, he knew risking their lives would actually only hurt their cause. Because if they died out there…

Sarada may never be free.

It took a few hours but the sand did finally die down, and Boruto was out of there like a black and yellow flash. Mitsuki barely had time to register his teammate was gone before he was forced to attempt to catch up with him. But he did eventually make it to Boruto (That break was the only one they’d gotten since Sarada had been taken) and within two hours, Suna was in sight. Which, to Mitsuki, was an absolute blessing.

So, sunburnt and exhausted, the two reached the gates of Suna, and Boruto was all but bouncing as they waited to be allowed entrance. It didn’t take long to explain, as the Sunagakure Ninja were expecting an important message from Konoha via ninja’s and they allowed them in. They had attempted to make it there sooner than usual but the time they’d lost because of the sandstorm prevented them from doing that. As a result, they were actually later than the Kazekage had anticipated so of course they went directly to the office. Mitsuki handed the Kazekage the scroll before the boys got down on their hands and knees. The Kazekage wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the boys but then one of them spoke.

“Please allow us to call my father with your computer.” Gaara was shocked to say the least, but did begin tapping at the computer. It wasn’t often that the five Kage communicated through video chat, but it did happen on occasion. But it wasn’t the most secure of methods, so they often preferred to meet in person. Besides, it was tradition for the five Kage to meet in person for the summit, and they weren’t about to break tradition. But with in general keeping up, it wasn’t uncommon.

Gaara would also admit to using it to communicate with Temari from time to time.

They heard the familiar ringing and stood up as the Kazekage turned the computer to face them. Within a minute Naruto’s office, and face, filled the screen.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 

Uzumaki Naruto, the 7th Hokage, and father to two very skilled young ninja, was concerned. He couldn’t quite place his finger on why he was concerned, but something was eating at him. It had for the past day or so. He wasn’t expecting Boruto back for a few more days at the very least so that wasn’t it, and Himawari had been checking in regularly with her current mission (escort/bodyguard missions were always long, but often once the village was reached check ins were fairly regular) so he had no reason to worry. Hinata was fine, Sasuke’s hawk had been by recently to keep Naruto updated and Sakura was doing well… In fact all of his friends were doing well.

When thinking of death anniversaries none came to mind, so he knew that also had nothing to do with it. He simply could not figure out what was bothering him. And it was while he attempted to put a finger on the problem that his computer made a familiar ringing noise. A video chat. Judging by the day it was either Gaara or Boruto, and according to the username, it was Gaara.

So when he was suddenly face to face with his oldest child and one of his son’s teammates, his concern grew.

“The mission was successful?” Boruto and Mitsuki nodded. And Naruto wanted to avoid the elephant in the room but he wasn’t sure he could. He had to ask, as a Hokage and as practically a family member. “Is Sarada alright? Is she at the hospital?” The silence wasn’t helping his anxiety in the slightest. Before he could say anything else, Gaara moved into frame and crouched so Naruto wasn’t staring at his chest.

“No third Konoha Ninja was confirmed to have arrived with them, Naruto.” Naruto’s chest tightened, and he nearly stopped breathing. There were three reasons a ninja did not arrive at their destination. They were either injured, killed, or kidnapped. And Naruto didn’t like any of those scenarios, for multiple reasons.

“Boruto… Mitsuki… Where is Sarada?”

“We… We don’t know, Hokage-Sama. She was taken.” Naruto had to swallow back his emotions right now. Boruto called Sasuke his uncle for a reason. Despite being a sensei to his son as well, Sasuke was practically family. Sarada… Sarada was like his niece. Despite the immense respect she showed to him, she was family. She could call him Uncle Naruto, for all he cared she might as well. And finding out she was abducted? He pulled out his phone and immediately called for Shikamaru. As soon as he was done he returned his attention to Boruto and Mitsuki.

“What happened? Details, now.”

“We were approached yesterday morning. Or rather, Sarada was. They were after her, he had ninja… Likely Jonin rank or higher. We were outranked and outnumbered. They got her, knocked her out with some kind of drug in a syringe, and left with her. We tried to go after her but there were so many ninja the moment we turned around one was in our path. Every time Boruto made a shadow clone it was attacked and destroyed. We tried to find her and we couldn’t. We would have been here sooner but we were grounded by a sandstorm.” Perhaps the details weren’t as precise as Naruto would have liked, but it was enough.

“D-Dad…” Naruto didn’t even scold Boruto for using the word dad. Technically Boruto wasn’t in Naruto’s office but even he was… Naruto couldn’t only play Hokage here. Boruto deserved to have his father be his father, at least as much as he could. Especially when he was so far from home. He never thought Boruto would have to see his teammate taken like Sarada was. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything negative.

“Yes?”“We… We left Grandpa’s mark in the forest where she was taken. It wasn’t off the path by too much, two days out from Konoha. We made it easy to find…” Naruto couldn’t help the smile working it’s way across his face. Boruto was well trained. It was so hard to believe that four years or so ago he had taken Boruto’s forehead protector for cheating in the Chunin exams.

“Good work, Boruto. You and Mitsuki should be seen by Suna’s hospital. Follow their directions and be back here as soon as you can for a proper mission report.” They nodded.

“You… You will find her? Right dad?” Shikamaru walked in just as Boruto said that, but remained silent when he saw Naruto’s solemn face.

“Of course we will. Don’t worry, I’ll find her. Believe it.” It had sure been a while since he’d said that. But never had he said it so sadly. He terminated the chat, and looked up at his advisor. He knew what he needed to do. “Put together Kurenai’s team. I have a mission for them.” He stood up and started to walk out of the room.

“Where are you going? Who are we looking for? What’s going on?”

“I’m going to get Sakura. It’s better I tell her myself.” Shikamaru wasn’t sure he even needed any more clarification. And didn’t even try as he watched the Seventh Hokage leave his office without even a shadow clone in his place.

The very act of knocking on Sakura’s door felt different. Naruto wasn’t even referring to what was going through his mind as he knocked on Sakura’s door. The very sound just… It sounded more solemn than he thought it would. And then the silence of the wait was nearly deafening as all he could hear were his own thoughts on what information he was about to give. And he wasn’t even concerned for his own safety. He just didn’t want to give out this kind of news to anyone, particularly not Sakura.

Thankfully (Or not so thankfully depending on how you looked at it) the wait wasn’t very long. The door opened, and he was face to face with his pink-haired former teammate. She raised an eyebrow at him before gesturing inside.

“So, do I actually have you Naruto, or are you a shadow clone?”“I’m not a shadow clone.” He paused, he really wasn’t sure how to do this. He wanted to do this as painlessly as possible but he wasn’t sure that was entirely possible. “Sakura… It’s about Sarada.” Sakura sat down, and he could see she was trying to remain calm. Sakura knew what her daughter was getting in to first hand. She knew there were dangers and risks involved with being a shinobi.

“What is it?”

“She’s… She’s missing. Abducted during her last mission.” Sakura took a deep breath and Naruto braced himself to be attacked. Or to be yelled at. Really he would have expected either one of them, or even both. But what he actually got…

“When am I leaving?” Naruto knew she would want to go, and at no point did he plan on making her stay behind. Sarada was her daughter, her only child, and Sasuke wasn’t home at the moment. There was no way he would expect Sakura to just sit at home and wait for news about her daughter’s location. Sakura would want to be out there in the field, looking for Sarada until her eyes bled.

Though that was more of a Sasuke thing.

Naruto wasn’t sure he liked how dark his humour had gotten there. But he chalked it up to an attempt to cope with what was going on right now. He glanced at the clock on the wall before turning back to Sakura.

“Be at my office as soon as you’re ready to leave.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 

“Uchiha Sarada has been abducted.”

Three of the four shinobi in the room who were about to leave gasped in shock. Shikamaru held his tongue but hearing that sent something down his spine. Sakura merely looked at Naruto, waiting for him to finish the instructional portion of this so they could leave. The sooner they left, the sooner Sakura could find her daughter.

“Your mission is to go to her last known location, and find her using whatever means necessary. We can only assume why she was taken, but it’s a safe bet they want her for her Sharingan. This could be time sensitive, the sooner we locate her, the better.” Not that Naruto would ever expect a search and rescue to be done slowly.

“How will we know where she was taken from?”

“Mitsuki and Boruto marked the location with the Fourth Hokage’s Flying Thunder seal. It will be easy to spot, it’s approximately two days out from Konoha.” They nodded, and when it seemed there was no more to be said, the team left. Now Naruto could only hope they would return quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, another chapter down. Seriously I'm in love with this story. Also I'm dark and evil. Also sorry about the slight Sasuke bashing, I really don't hate him. I'm just annoyed. TEN YEARS SASUKE TEN YEARS THAT IS YOUR DAUGHTER.
> 
> I'm bitter.


	4. Hope

**Day 6**

Sarada wasn’t quick to say that she was giving up hope. But with each day that went by, larger and larger pieces of her were becoming convinced she would never see the light of day again. The more times Daiki came into ‘her’ room to have his way with her, the more nervous she became over the potential of conceiving a child with him. She was really having to start considering finding ways of preventing it on her own.

Not to mention considering that she might very well be on her own in escaping.

That wasn’t to say she didn’t want to try, she just figured if she laid low it would be easier for someone to find her. Fewer protections would be up around a captive who behaved, right? But she was getting beyond the time that she had thought she would have to lie low. It had almost been a week actually, if she was correct in her counting. And really she could only take so much more of this before she broke. It was almost painful having to go through with what he wanted every day. But she was determined to make it out of here alive, and preferably without an added human in her stomach.

Which meant she had to start planning an escape.

She knew she couldn’t break the door, he’d already told her that. No chakra could get to her hands or feet so she couldn’t break it. And she really didn’t want to attempt it either. She could tell just by feeling it wouldn’t be breaking without chakra. And she wasn’t about to try without that kind of help. But perhaps… Maybe if she camped out by the door she could sneak through and run. Sure, the place was probably a maze (she’d never left the room) but as long as she could outrun them…

She would have to be in peak physical condition and even then… She was seriously doubting she would be able to do that. He would have to take her out of the room himself at least once before she could even attempt to escape. She couldn’t just run around willy-nilly and hope to find an exit. But how could she manage that? And even if she did get out, she didn’t know where she was. They were in the middle of the forest if she had to take a guess, the odds that she would be able to find her way out when simply surrounded by trees weren’t exactly in her favor.

She might have to continue to wait it out. Bide her time. Plan something, and do her best to keep from being healthy enough to actually get pregnant. Because there was no way she was giving this bastard what he wanted. And as much as she hated waiting, she knew she had no other options at the moment.

She glanced over at the toilet, it had only been twenty minutes since she’d finished her breakfast… They’d taken the food tray already too… She groaned a little, not looking forward to what she was about to do, and leaned over the toilet bowl. Only a few minutes later the contents of her stomach had been emptied, and she immediately got rid of the evidence. She then stuck her head under the sink and rinsed out her mouth.

Hopefully that medic ninja Daiki had wouldn’t figure out her current strategy.

And now she had to figure out her second plan. Getting to know her way around the place so she could get herself out of here as quickly as possible. And she could only think of one reason she could request that would get her out of this damned room. And as weird as it was that she would be asking for it, she was almost certain it would work. He had said it would only be when he allowed it, but it had almost been a week, surely he was planning on doing something soon.

She would just… Try and speed up the process.

She went through the clothes that were provided, knowing he would want her to change out of the outfit she was currently in. She needed to find something else. So after only a minute or two on the outfit, she couldn’t spend more than that without thinking too much about it, she had found something ‘appropriate’. In this case, a short red lingerie thing with sheer black stockings that reached her mid-thigh and attached to the lingerie.

The creep had thought of everything.

Daiki walked in, and she stayed on the bed, but this was the beginning. She would be able to start learning her way around this place soon.

“How is my precious Sara-chan today?” She had to actually fight the urge to cringe whenever he called her that. It was common enough, but it just… Hurt. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to hear anyone else call her that ever again. Which would be difficult to explain to her mother who had taken to using it lately, almost like she was trying to preserve her daughter’s innocence or something like that.

The thought was laughable now.

“Honestly…” She paused, this needed to sound as ‘innocent’ as possible right now. “I could use a shower soon.” He approached her, running a hand through her hair. Kami, she hated him. She hated this. Acting like he was her boyfriend or something. She supposed it could be worse, now that she’d seen him up close and personal she could tell he couldn’t be more than twenty-two, so it wasn’t like there was a gross age difference. And if he wasn’t the world’s biggest creep she would probably find him attractive. As it was though, with what he wanted her for… Well his ‘hotness’ meter was down near zero.

“I think you might be right.” She was about to celebrate in her head, before he finished his thought. “We should take a shower.” She was taken aback, and could hardly form the single word she could manage to think of.  
“…We?”

“You didn’t think I’d be leaving you alone, did you Sara-chan? I still have to believe you might try something. I know you ninja are crafty.” He wasn’t wrong, but she hadn’t exactly been planning to run around this place naked just to escape.

“Oh… Well alright.” In her head she was berating herself, but she needed to get out of this room so she’d do whatever it took.

“You haven’t changed your mind have you?” He almost sounded… Accusatory. Like he was expecting her to have changed her mind and for a suspicion to be revealed. And… While it wasn’t ideal it wasn’t like the two of them taking a shower at the same time would hinder her original plan. However… It did make her want to vomit again.

“No, no not at all!”

_Yes, but not for the reasons you think._

“Then I’ll get the bathroom ready. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes, Sara-chan.” And maybe two minutes after he left she found herself hovered over the toilet again.

Well, at least that part of her plan would be easy.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Boruto your father is going to kill us if we keep showing up at his office.” Mitsuki knew his protests were falling on deaf ears but he still tried. He didn’t want to be on the Hokage’s bad side, but he _was_ with Lord Seventh’s son. So there was only so much anger he would have for the pair right?

The sinking feeling in Mitsuki’s stomach was saying otherwise.

“Boruto-” The two of them came crashing through the door of the Hokage’s office, the _closed_ door mind you, and Boruto was shouting at his father without even taking in his surroundings. And if Mitsuki could have had the time to react he would have told Boruto once again that the idea was very bad. Possibly even covered his teammate’s mouth with his hand. But it was too late.

“Dad, you have to let us help find her!” Because right as the words left Boruto’s mouth, Mitsuki noticed that the Hokage was not alone in the room. A certain dark haired man was there with him, and Mitsuki’s stomach just about jumped to his throat and then plummeted to his feet when he saw him. He grabbed Boruto’s arm. Hard. “What the _hell_ , Mitsuki!?”

“Look,” Mitsuki whispered harshly. And Boruto’s eyes widened as the dark haired man turned to face them. Mitsuki tried to back them out of the room but in an instant their route was blocked. If there was one thing Sasuke Uchiha had against them it was the body flicker technique. Mitsuki turned to face Lord Seventh, but saw he was avoiding all eye contact.

“What’s going on.” Boruto and Mitsuki both avoided looking at Sasuke in the face. Naruto took out his phone and texted Shikamaru to tell him to get Konohamaru. Then looked at all the people in his office right now.

He wasn’t getting away with this one.

“Boruto, I’ve told you before not to barge in here like that.” Naruto knew he wouldn’t get anywhere with scolding him, but he needed to say something. If nothing else, to remind his son that he was still the Hokage. He cared for Sarada, he was concerned for her safety, but he had to follow the rules.

At least, to the best of his ability.

“I just want to help-” Naruto cut off Boruto, he really didn’t need to hear it right now.

“I know you do.”

“You made us wait-” The Seventh Hokage didn’t understand why his son was simply stating obvious things right now. He wasn’t going to provide details to a ‘squad’ without every member present and accounted for. And he was waiting for one final member.

“I know I did.”

“It’s been almost a week-”

“I _know_ , Boruto.” Instead of Boruto this time around, it was Mitsuki. He did let the boy talk, it was interesting seeing him make his case, and honestly it _was_ comforting to see the relationships the boy had built. He’d heard, but seeing was always better, he did want him to fit in as best he could, he always had.

“Lord Seventh, we are more than capable of assisting in a Search and Rescue mission now that our original assignment is complete and we’ve had time to recover. Boruto’s shadow clones are useful, I can access Sage Mode if need be, and we _were_ the last ones to see her.” Sasuke, not knowing what was gong on around him, didn’t like that sentence.

“I know all of this, Mitsuki.” That didn’t mean he was going to really give the boy any sort of preferential response. He was still the Hokage after all. As for Sasuke, well he was trying really hard not to throw someone out a window. He felt like he was extremely out of the loop, and really needed to not be. But it was sounding more and more like a situation he wasn’t going to be a fan of as the ‘conversation’ continued.

“Then what are you waiting for, Dad?”

“Me.” The people in the room turned to see Konohamaru, ready to leave. Sasuke was more than about ready to throttle someone to get them to tell him what was going on, Boruto and Mitsuki looked relived, and Naruto just seemed… ready. The Hokage faced all of them and took a deep breath, not wanting to have to say the words that were about to leave his mouth. And while only one person here didn’t know what was going on, he treated it like he would any other mission briefing.

“Uchiha Sarada has been abducted.” Sasuke’s eyes widened, and Naruto could see he was about to get yelled out so he continued. “You are to be another set of eyes in an attempt to locate her. Obviously the goal is to return her alive, but if it’s impossible,” Sasuke was trying really hard not to think about that scenario. “It is imperative we protect the Sharingan.” Konohamaru, Boruto, and Mitsuki nodded. Sasuke on the other hand…

“Exactly how long has my daughter been missing, Naruto!?” The group wasn’t exactly surprised to see Sasuke lose it a little bit on the Hokage. If there was anyone comfortable enough to yell at Naruto it was Sasuke. But Naruto was calm in his response.

“Six days.” They could practically feel the anger coming from the older Uchiha. “The first group I sent out is Team 8, they’re best tracking team we’ve got. I also sent Sakura with them.” Sasuke seemed to soften slightly at the mention of his wife. Likely because he trusted the abilities of the first team. But that didn’t mean he was going to turn down the opportunity to search for Sarada himself.

“Why don’t we get going?” Konohamaru was going to try and keep everyone at least relatively calm. “Boruto, Mitsuki, why don’t you take us to where you guys were when she was taken?” The boys nodded, and the rather… Unconventional group of four took off in search. With Mitsuki and Boruto avoiding eye contact with the father of their missing teammate.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sakura’s patience was surprisingly good.

‘Her’ team would not have been surprised if she lost her temper on day one, fast forward to day 4 and she had still kept her cool. And if they were being totally honest they had no idea how she was doing it. Hinata could only imagine what her friend was going through right now, knowing that at any given point they could either be locating her daughter or her daughter’s corpse. Hinata was forcing herself not to imagine the situation with Boruto or Himawari.

But just the thought sent chills down her spine.

They had taken the two days they needed to reach the last point that Boruto and Mitsuki had seen Sarada and from there Kiba and Akamaru had gotten to work. Shino would send out his bugs every so often in an attempt to cover more ground and Hinata would activate her Byakugan at the slightest noise.

Days had gone by with nothing, no sign of her. The scent was old, had tapered off somewhat quickly, and they had no way of knowing for sure where to go. Some days it felt like they were going in circles. Dispelling genjutsu only to find nothing when it was gone. Whoever it was that had taken Sarada had thought of everything. And that wasn’t sitting well with the search team.

Sakura was sitting, had stopped for a break at the insistence of the group, trying to work out in her head the most logical places to search. Hinata was sitting next to her, eyesight compromised after four days of searching with her Byakugan. Kiba and Shino had their senses on high alert so the girls would feel just the slightest bit better. Not to mention the growing concern for the sixteen year olds safety.

“I don’t understand… We should at least have some kind of lead by now.” The group was searching almost nonstop for four days, even as they travelled to the location she’d been taken from they were all on alert. Hinata had her Byakugan activated for any potential signs of her, Kiba was continuously checking for her scent, and Shino had been sending out bugs since minute one.

“Whoever has her wants to keep her hidden, it’s not that surprising… But it is concerning.” Sakura forced her face into something neutral and kept it there. Hinata on the other hand was more than willing to tell Shino that she didn’t think what he said was appropriate.

“Shino… That’s not helpful right now.”

“I fail to see how it’s not relevant.”

“It’s relevant Shino, but for Sakura’s sake we shouldn’t talk like that.” Hinata turned to the pink haired woman. “We’ll find her Sakura, I’m sure of it.” Sakura nodded, not wanting to think about how Sarada must be feeling right now and failing to do so. Night was falling on day four of their mission and there was no sign of her. But for her… She’d been with this person for six days. And Sakura could only imagine what she was being subjected to.

The images got worse as time went on.

“We should sleep, start fresh tomorrow.” Sakura looked up at Shino, not wanting to believe what was coming out of his mouth. Not wanting to believe what he was hearing. She couldn’t stop, not now! They had to find her, had to locate Sarada. Sarada needed to be home, home with her family. As soon as she was home Sakura would get word to Sasuke and make sure he was home. Their family would be together for at least a week maybe more.

Sakura needed her family together after this.

“We have to find her now.” Shino tried to explain it rationally.

“We won’t be any use right now. We’ll start up again tomorrow.” This time Kiba was the one to offer comforting words. Sakura was getting beyond rational explanation right now. She needed something emotional. Encouragement that would get to her heart not her brain.

“We’ll find her, Sakura, I swear we will.”


	5. Escape

**Day 10**

Sometimes Sarada wondered if her father was proud of her.

It was a silly thing to wonder really, she usually didn’t care. She had to force herself to stop caring because if she didn’t it would hurt. And she didn’t want to feel that pain. She also sometimes wondered similar things about her deceased relatives. He grandparents, her uncle, the entire Uchiha clan. She didn’t know much but she knew enough.

Were they proud of her?

She was trying to avoid thinking about what was currently happening to her at the hands of Daiki, so she would think about whatever came to mind. And honestly, if they had ever been proud of her, she was certain they weren’t now. Would never be again. Her mother was likely worried about her, out trying to find her if she’d been allowed. Lord Seventh was probably concerned. But once everything came out, and they knew the whole story, everything would change.

Lord Seventh would probably be angry at her for not trying harder to escape.

Her Mother would be mad about that as well, but would be more concerned.

Boruto and Mitsuki were probably mad at themselves.

And her father would probably never look at her again.

She wasn’t 100% sure why she felt that way about her father, but she had that feeling in the back of her mind and she couldn’t get rid of it. Like she’d let her father down. She shouldn’t have been taken. She shouldn’t have stayed gone. She should be back in Konoha because she should have been able to get herself away. And yet here she was.

She was a failure of a ninja.

After Daiki left she went and washed herself off in the sink again. She’d been here ten days, she really was going to have to accept the fact that she wasn’t going to be found. She knew a few days ago, but each day was getting more and more real. She had to take action, and she had to take action soon. She just had to figure out what kind of action she would be taking.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sakura was getting desperate. Each passing day was harder and harder on the concerned mother. Each night she felt like her heart was breaking more and more, thinking about what could be happening to Sarada as she failed to bring her home. But she could only think about it for so long before she had to find something else to occupy her mind. But as the time dragged on finding other things to think about got harder and harder.

She tried to stay positive, tried to convince herself everyday that this would be _the_ day. The day when they found Sarada and took her home. There was part of her that hoped that when they did take her home Sasuke would be there. Of course, there was also a part of her that wished that Sasuke was with her, looking for Sarada.

“I’m sorry, Sakura.” She turned to Hinata, who was standing next to her, Byakugan activated. She wasn’t sure why she was getting an apology.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“For not having found Sarada yet.”

“I’m not mad at any of you for that.”

“I know you aren’t mad, but I feel bad. I know how I would feel if this was Boruto or Himawari.” Sakura just sort of looked ahead. Hinata had been watching the light and hope slowly fade from Sakura’s eyes as they searched for Sarada. Her friends eyes had gone dull, and she had a feeling that locating Sarada was the only way to get the light back into them.

“Still no luck on her scent, but Shino’s still checking in with his bugs so we’ll see what he says. But I wouldn’t be too worried, Sarada’s resilient. I’m sure she’ll get herself somewhere soon where we can pick up the scent again.” Kiba seemed to be taking the role of optimist for the group, and Sakura was trying her hardest to believe what was coming out of his mouth. But it had been over a week since she’d been taken.

At what point did they start looking for a body instead of a living being?

Because Sakura didn’t want to start that search.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sasuke was trying his hardest not to aim death glares at Naruto’s kid.

He knew, somewhere deep down he knew, the two Chunin accompanying him were not to blame for his daughter’s disappearance. They were outranked and outnumbered, their words, there was nothing they could have done. And from the story, they didn’t just lie down and surrender. They followed proper protocol and now there were two Konoha search squads attempting to retrieve Sarada.

But ten days was plenty of time for Sarada to have had her eyes removed. He wanted to remain in a state of belief that his daughter was alright. Alive, intact, eyes still firmly inside their sockets. But it was hard when he knew the truth of his clan, the curse that seemed to follow it. He knew her Sharingan was different, brought about by her desire to meet him (that about broke his heart and warmed it all at the same time), but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be subject to cruelty because of her existence.

This whole situation was making him question why he wanted to do this to her. Just her existence made her a target and he had done this to her. He couldn’t help but feel responsible. And he hadn’t even been around for her growing up.

He knew that if there was a worst father ever award he’d be taking home the gold, silver, and bronze.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sarada was sitting by the door, ready for Daiki to come in. She couldn’t waste time making decisions she had to do something now. So just eight hours later she was waiting. Waiting for him to come in. Waiting for him so she could knock him out and get out of here. She’d been waiting on the floor for a couple of hours now, her butt was starting to get cold and her muscles felt like they were starting to stiffen.

Just as she started stretching them out she heard the door start to open, and she looked at it. Part of her her was nervous, she wasn’t at her top strength right now and had no chakra to back her up. But she had to do something, she couldn’t just sit here. She grabbed his ankle and yanked, and he fell backwards. She watched, and heard, his head hit the floor with a sickening crack and she had a feeling he’d be out for a while. So she stood, and jumped over him, making a run for it.

She could hear footsteps behind her and pushed herself to go faster. She had next to no idea as to where she was going but she was determined to get out of here. She ran from one dark corridor to the next, looking for a way out. But it was like a maze, she had no idea what was what down here. She was reminded of that time she’d ended up in one of Orochimaru’s lairs just before graduation.

She only had a little time to think about that before she was turning down yet _another_ corridor. She wasn’t sure she would ever find an exit to this place, it just went on and on. She was losing her breath, the constant purging of the food she was provided wasn’t doing her health any favors (which was kind of the point), but it meant this wasn’t going to get any easier for her.

She was really missing her chakra right about now.

Turn after turn the footsteps were getting closer and closer and there was no exit in sight. And even worse, if she did make it out, she’d never get far enough to avoid recapture. Not unless she got ridiculously lucky and the, likely underground, hideout spit her out directly in front of someone who was looking for her.

She felt like her chest was going to explode, and her legs were on fire, she wasn’t going to last much longer, she needed an escape. Despite the potential for failure, even if she was recaptured, she’d actually been paying close attention to the turns she made. She could recreate this if need be.

She just needed to know there was an exit at the end of all of this.

She turned down another corridor and saw a door. She pushed herself just enough to get to it and had her hand on the knob when she felt something behind her. A searing pain shot through her arm and her vision became spotty. She couldn’t focus on anything else, but she was slowly succumbing to the pain until everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter I know, but hopefully they'll get longer as things pick up. I hope that starts right about now, we'll see what happens. Please comment, I love hearing what you guys think!


	6. Truth

**Day 14**

There was a pounding in her head.

She didn’t remember hitting it, but it hurt like hell. She attempted to reach up and apply pressure to it with her palm, but her left arm wouldn’t move. She tried the other one and felt a shooting pain through from her arm and stopped immediately. There was a barrier there as well, that much she could tell now, but something else was wrong. The problem was that she couldn’t see well enough to try and make out what was going on around her. It was too dark.

Just then a door opened, letting in just enough light to make her head hurt more and she closed her eyes as quickly as possible. She could see through her eyelids that light was still spilling into the room, but as the seconds passed, her eyes slowly adjusted and soon she was able to open them. And she was face to face with Daiki, and wishing she’d kept them closed.

“So, you’re finally awake.” It took her brain a moment to fully comprehend what he was saying to her. Everything was still a little muddled in her head. But when she did figure it out she wasn’t sure she liked the connotations.

“Finally?”

“I had my medical ninja administer something to keep you sedated for a while. Didn’t want a repeat of that little escape attempt.” She had a feeling there was more to preventing more escape attempts, and he just hadn’t mentioned them yet.

“How long was I out for.” There was no point in arguing or struggling, especially not when she was in pain. And she wasn’t going to give him the courtesy of asking her question politely, he’d already proven he didn’t deserve it.

“Four days.” Her eyes narrowed as she considered her next question-that-wouldn’t-be-asked-like-one.

“And what’s wrong with my arm.”

“Your shoulder was dislocated. It’s in place now, but I wouldn’t try and move it for the next few days, it’s still healing after all.” Something told her that Daiki told the medic ninja to not fully heal her. She had a medic nin for a mother, she knew a dislocated would would be easy enough for someone with experience. Kami she really wanted to slit this guys throat, but she had no way of doing it. Her right arm hurt like hell and her left arm was tied down. Her legs wouldn’t move either.

“You can do whatever you want to me. Someone from my village will find me soon enough.” She was smirking, he could hold her here all he wanted. But eventually someone would find her, she may have given up on being found _soon_ , but they’d find her eventually. And even if she lost hope, she’d let him believe she thought she’d be found. She wasn’t going to let him see her give up.

“Wouldn’t that mean they would have to be out looking for you?” His voice confused her. Hell his whole statement confused her. He was making it sound like he knew something she didn’t.

“What kind of question is that?”  
“I’m just saying is that as of right now none of my ninja have spotted a single Konoha ninja out looking for you.” Her eyes widened, what was he talking about? Surely they were looking for her! Surely they had a team out to find her, surely they didn’t think she was a lost cause!

Surely…

“You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie to you? I have nothing to gain.” She shook her head, he had to be lying to her. It wouldn’t make sense, they had to have at least seen a Konoha ninja. Not being found didn’t mean they hadn’t at least be in the area. Not even ending up over here in two weeks? That… That was impossible.

“There’s no way they gave up on me.”

“Wouldn’t shock me, honestly. With Sasuke Uchiha as your father? I would have expected you to be abandoned one day. Or do the abandoning yourself, honestly. But don’t worry,” he stroked her cheek as he spoke and she cringed slightly. “I’ll never abandon you.” She had no idea what he was talking about, sure she and her father didn’t really have the greatest relationship but only about ten minutes after he’d seen her for the first time in ten years he used himself as a shield to protect her.

He wouldn’t abandon her… Right?

But what did her father do to make him say that? Had he done something? Or maybe this was a lie too…

“My father wouldn’t abandon me.”

“Didn’t he do that once already? And considering he abandoned his own team as a child… Well I would expect nothing less from Sasuke Uchiha.” Sarada shook her head, the only movement she could make. She didn’t believe him, couldn’t believe him. There was no way her father abandoned mom and Lord Seventh. She couldn’t exactly disprove the first part of the statement, he hadn’t been around when she was young.

“No. I don’t… He didn’t…”

“Don’t they teach History at the Academy in Konoha? Sasuke Uchiha abandoned his team, and went rogue. Became an S-Class Missing Nin. If his old Sensei didn’t become Hokage, he likely would still be in prison today.” Sarada was speechless, she had no idea what she was supposed to say. Her father… She didn’t know much about his time as a young ninja. She’d heard stories about everyone else but no one wanted to tell her about her father.

Was that why? Was he correct? Was her father really that… Bad?

She didn’t want to believe it, but she couldn’t think of a reason he would have to lie to her about this. It wasn’t like it would prevent her from trying to escape. And besides, escaping wasn’t exactly an easy task, he’d made that perfectly clear. Between his locked door rules and the veritable maze of a hideout… It would take her ages to figure out which way was ‘out’ of the place.

Not that she was giving up.

“Let her out.” She turned to look at him as a couple of ninja began to untie her, while also keeping her firmly in place. They then stood her up, one of them holding her arm (the good one) the other standing dangerously close. While holding a kunai. She couldn’t help but feel like the weapon was overkill.

She wouldn’t be beating anyone up with a useless right arm.

She was walked back to her room, at least she assumed it was where they were headed. Without knowing where she started she couldn’t make sense of the turns they were making to determine where they were headed. But they walked, and it took a while, but they finally reached the door to their destination. Daiki opened it and let them in, and it was just the two of them.

Inside a cage.

She could see the room she’d been living in just beyond it. But she was currently surrounded by metal bars. It was a small section, just enough to fit maybe four people. Daiki pulled out a key before speaking.

“I had to make some modifications. If you don’t want to cooperate I have to make it harder to leave. I didn’t want to do this but you gave me no choice. But I didn’t want to deprive you of the room you had.” He said it like she should be grateful. She fought the urge to make it seem like she wasn’t. The door installed with the cage was unlocked and she was moved to the main area of the room. Without Daiki.

“What, don’t want to join me?” She got a head shake before a response.

“We must let your arm heal. I assure you, I got what I needed while you were otherwise occupied. I don’t think you should have any… Temptations for the next few days.” It was only after he left that she figured out what those vague sentences meant. And while the second half wasn’t a huge deal, she could only assume he wasn’t going inside the cage portion for fear of another escape attempt. The first half…

She found herself bent over the toilet fairly quickly once she’d figured that out.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sakura’s team was currently spending the better part of the day watching Sakura punch trees. It wasn’t that Sakura was wasting their time, she just needed to let off some steam. Because the fact was, save for a few bandits, they hadn’t found even the slightest hint as to where Sarada could be. And even the bandits hadn’t been much help. Some had seen the traveling kidnapper and her daughter, but none had actually seen where they’d gone.

They were essentially useless.

They were still moving, but Sakura couldn’t keep herself from destroying the trees in their path. It was driving her nuts, how could they have not found her yet? With the best tracking team in Konoha, and her own skills as a ninja, they should have found her by now and gotten her home! And the pitying looks from Hinata weren’t exactly helping.

“Is there anywhere we haven’t looked yet in the Land of Fire?” Kiba seemed to be trying his hardest to think of something. He normally relied on his nose, but right now it wasn’t going to get them anywhere. Nether was Hinata’s Byakugan. They didn’t know where to look, and it wasn’t like their tracking skills ranged the entire land of fire.

“I… I don’t even know. Probably… But where would we even start now?” Sakura’s voice had gone from determined to defeated. She had started this, convinced they would bring Sarada back quickly. But he longer this took, the more she worried that they wouldn’t be able to find her before it was too late.

“There has to be somewhere we could try looking that we haven’t tried yet.” Hinata looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Shino. He had been relatively quiet so far, and he had to have _something_ going on in that head of his.

“What do you think, Shino?”

“None of my bugs have seen anything yet. But I will keep you updated.” Sakura turned and glared at Shino. She was angry, not necessarily irrationally so, but definitely more than she should be at a comrade who was simply trying to help her out. Sure it was a mission, but it was still something he was helping her with.

“You’ve been saying that since we started!” If Shino was taken aback, no one could tell. His expression remained emotionless.

“It is still true.”

“What good are they if they can’t find my daughter!?” Hinata was certain sure infighting would be anything but productive.

“Sakura-”

“The longer this takes the less likely we are to find her!”

“We know-” Shino didn’t even get to finish his statement.

“You don’t know!”

“Sakura-”

“You don’t know what it’s like to not know whether your child is alive or dead and it’s still your job to find her! This is _my daughter_!” The group all moved as Sakura punched the nearest tree and it splintered. The once giant trunk now reduced to twigs. Hinata went over and grabbed at Sakura’s shoulders.

“Sakura. We understand the severity of the situation. And we _will_ find Sarada, I swear we will. But getting overly angry and upset isn’t going to find her any faster. Save those feelings for the person who took her.” Sakura simply nodded. She knew Hinata was right, she knew before it had even been said. But it certainly did help that she’d gotten to shout, if only for a minute.

“It might be best to go back and start from the beginning again. As far as we know they likely aren’t moving around much, if the lack of a scent is anything to go by. We follow the direction of the battle again, and see if we missed anything the first time. Right now we’re wandering without direction.” As the group glanced around, they realized Kiba was right. Wandering aimlessly and getting intel off of random bandits was getting them nowhere. They were better off when they had an idea of where they were going.

“Can you get us back to where she was taken from, Kiba?”

“Definitely.”

“Is Sakura okay with this course of action?” There was a pause as Sakura considered it. As much as she didn’t want to be back at square one… It made the most sense.

“Let’s go.” The group nodded, and Kiba took off. The three followed closely behind him, and Hinata activated her Byakugan once more.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The group had stopped to eat, and as Mitsuki and Boruto finished their food, they marveled at the sheer speed that Sasuke Uchiha could eat. The man only had one hand, and somehow had finished before the rest of them. And was now watching them, impatiently waiting so they could continue their search.

“Never seen you so jumpy before, Uncle Sasuke. You’re usually so cool.” The comment earned Boruto a glare and he just looked down as he finished eating, suddenly very interested in the grass around his feet.

“You need to stop treating these two like they handed Sarada over to the guy, Sasuke. They’re here, helping look for her. And they’ve been begging to join the search since they got back from Suna. I think we’re just lucky you showed up as early as you did. Naruto was waiting for a fourth member, and goodness only knows who would be dealing with them if it wasn’t you.”

“Is everyone finished eating?” The group wasn’t even fazed at the fact that Sasuke had just completely ignored everything Konohamaru had said to him. Instead, they nodded at Sasuke and stood up, ready to head off once again.

“I think…” Sasuke started. “I’m going to have to call in a favor.” Konohamaru turned to look at Sasuke, confusion evident on his face.

“From?” Sasuke simply looked at Konohamaru, and the Jonin got all the information he needed to know. “You can’t be serious.” Sasuke gave a single nod before speaking.

“I am.”

“You’re seriously going to take us to see him?” Konohamaru was flabbergasted, but that didn’t keep him from continuing to follow Sasuke. If he was going to argue with the Uchiha, he wasn’t going to give him a second thing to be mad about.

“He has abandoned hideouts all throughout the Land of Fire. He would know which ones would be the most easy to gain access to.” Konohamaru hadn’t even considered the possibility that Sarada had been taken to an old hideout. He’d assumed some kind of house, but if she hadn’t ben found yet… Something underground _would_ make more sense.

“If you think one of them has been taken over why not just check all of them?”

“Do you have any idea how long that would take? There may only be a handful of them but they would each take at least a week to search, especially with you three, and at least two days travel between each one if we’re lucky. We could search for two months and find nothing.”

“Ah…”

“Exactly.” Konohamaru had to think about the implications here. While he didn’t want to take Boruto and Mitsuki to _him_ , it didn’t seem like they had much of a choice. Those hideouts were a logical place to look after all. So he turned back to Sasuke, he wasn’t going to argue this anymore.

“How long will it take to get to him?”

“From here? Maybe a day at this pace. That is just an estimate, however.”

“… Alright.” If Sasuke was willing to spend a day of travel to do this, than he likely believed it was the only option at the moment. The man was hell bent on finding his daughter, after all. He wasn’t going to do something that was likely to waste their time.

“You act like he’s going to hurt you.”

“We are talking about-”

“We’re completely safe, I assure you.”

Boruto and Mitsuki looked at each other, neither of them really sure what was going on between the two adults, and neither of them really wanting to question it either. Instead, they followed their teachers, and hoped that this plan of Sasuke’s would work and that they would find Sarada soon.

The longer they spent looking, the more worried they became.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Naruto was sitting at his desk, desperately trying to focus on the work in front of him. But it was difficult not to spend some energy worrying about the search parties that were out looking for Sarada. He knew it wasn’t productive to start casting blame, but the longer everyone was gone, the more he worried that it was his fault. That he shouldn’t have sent them on that mission to Suna.

Just as he started worrying about it for the tenth time that day, his laptop began making noise. He looked at it, and realized it was Gaara calling for a video chat. He reached over and accepted it.

“Nice timing, Gaara. You may have saved me from myself.”

“I was wondering how your search for Sarada Uchiha was going.” Naruto’s face, and head, fell a little at the mention of Sarada.

It’s… Going. And that’s about it.”

“So you still haven’t located her?”

“As far as I’m aware, neither team has found her. And we have Sasuke _and_ Sakura out searching.”

“Would it be productive if I offered my services?” That took a moment to register with the Seventh Hokage. He and Gaara got along really well, had been friends for a while, it wasn’t a stretch to think that Gaara would want to help him out. Especially considering it was two teams of mostly Leaf Shinobi that had located him when the Akatsuki had taken him. But still… He didn’t need to get himself involved.  
“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.” Naruto knew better than to argue with Gaara. He seemed to have already made up his mind on the subject. Probably had a team awaiting orders as they spoke.

“If you want to then… Yes. The more teams looking the better.”

“I’ll send the team out immediately.”

“… I appreciate this, Gaara.”

“It’s not a problem, Naruto.”

The two hung up, and Naruto looked up at Shikamaru. He was getting a look from the man at the doorway.

“Only you would have friends in other lands willing to offer their services without asking, Naruto.”

“Never look a gift horse in the mouth, right?” The response he got came in the form of a simple nod, and Naruto just smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took a while, sorry about that. But I think my chapters are getting longer, so I'm going to call that a win! Hope you enjoyed! Comments are wonderful they literally make my day. Even if it's just to scream at me for doing things to people. I know I'm evil. Happy/feels screams are wonderful. If it's criticism please use your inside voice :)


	7. Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wanted to get this up sooner but that clearly didn't happen. I've been kind of busy, actually recently got back from an anime convention. Also started school and got myself a job. It's been a crazy time. I also started a Tumblr for my writer name. I'll be posting when I update stuff but also writer stuff in general and it's also a good place to go if you're worried about me because I'll also post updates on how my writing is going sometimes :) Just gonna leave that link here and you can decide if you want to utilize it. https://velvetrose529.tumblr.com/ Anyway, on to the chapter!

**Day 15**

Sarada didn’t get much sleep that night.

Her shoulder was sore, and the dull aching pain was preventing her from trying to fall asleep. She sat up, slowly and carefully, and looked around. She was actually only assuming it was nighttime based on the last meal she’d received. Having not seen the sun in what she was pretty sure was two weeks, if her personal count was correct. It was hard to say for certain what the time of day was.

It could be noon for all she knew.

She pushed herself out of bed and walked over to the bars that made up her entrance cage. Pulling at one of the bars, she tried to consider her options for escape. Even if she managed to get through to the actual door when someone walked in, that still presented the problem of getting _through_ the door. Surely there was something, but at the moment she couldn’t think of an escape plan.

She tried to get herself through the gaps in the bars, but her shoulder protested the attempt. But as she tried, she realized she could potentially make it through the gap. However, she was still just the slightest bit too large to do it. An unhealthily skinny person could probably do it, but at the moment she still had a decent amount of muscle and fat. None of it was a bad thing for a shinobi, but right now being small and insignificant would be an advantage, for more than just escaping.

She glanced over at the toilet, she had of course continued her ritual of not keeping food down, but she’d never considered the possibility of trying afterwords. Was there still something in her system that would fight to keep her healthy? The risk of getting pregnant… The female body automatically fought to keep a growing child alive if pregnancy did occur. Her mother had taught her about that around the time she became old enough to take those types of missions. In fact, she’d even taken a couple.

But when she had she’d been equipped to prevent something like that. Kunoichi had a strong birth control method, especially for those types of missions, but it wasn’t always necessary. And even then, it was just a precaution. At her age, they just allowed the slimmest of chances. And usually it wasn’t until you were older and more experienced that you ended up having to deal with it. Sarada had been meaning to make a more permanent switch in birth control methods but hadn’t done it yet as she was still a ways off from really needed it constantly.

She was cursing that decision now.

She bent over the toilet again, desperate to try anything at this point. Being ridiculously unhealthy was the end goal here, if she couldn’t escape, she'd prevent his goal from being a reality. She looked in the mirror, there had to be more… More she could do… Something else to help keep her unhealthy. And as she looked at herself she remembered a conversation she’d had with Konohamaru-Sensei. One that had ultimately led to a conversation with her mother that had been awkward to say the least.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_”Sarada?” The girl didn’t hear him, or at least she pretended not to. She was too focused on what she was doing to want to respond so pretending she didn’t hear was the best choice in her mind. “Sarada, how long have you been out here?” She was still trying to ignore him. She tuned only when she felt a hand on her shoulder._

_“Konohamaru-Sensei, why-” She didn’t even get to finish her question._

_“I how long have you been out here?” She thought for a moment, she wasn’t actually sure how long she'd been training for. It was a while though._

_“I don’t-”_

_“If you don’t know, it’s been too long.” She shook her head, she almost had it. She almost had it and if she could just get it right she could finally rest._

_“I’ve almost got it-”_

_“Sarada what are you-” Before Konohamaru-Sensei could do anything she began forming hand signs. His eyebrows raised as he realized what jutsu she was trying to perfect. What jutsu she’d been working on this whole time. Her eyes turned red, and there was lightning forming in her hand._

_Sasuke’s Chidori._

_Granted, Konohamaru knew enough to know that the move had been created by Kakashi, but her lack of a teacher here meant she was teaching herself. And while he still couldn’t quite wrap his head around how she even knew the signs for the jutsu, she had no one here supervising her training, she was putting herself at risk. He wasn’t sure what he could possibly do to stop her now without risking lightning to the chest, and he rather liked his heart. He wasn’t about to send it into cardiac arrest._

_The tree she was aiming at was splintered quickly, but she wasn’t moving. And by some unfortunate stroke of bad luck it was falling towards her. When he realized his student wasn’t moving, he burst forward and yanked her out of the way, just in time to avoid getting squashed by the tree. When he looked down he saw her eyes closing and sighed, hoisting the fourteen year old up off the ground._

_“Lets get you home…”_

_*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_She woke up in her bed, her mom’s hand resting on her head with the feeling of medical chakra flowing through her. She knew better than to disturb her mother when she was using medical ninjutsu so she waited for her to stop before moving. It stopped slowly, and she sat up, looking around. Just her and her mom. As usual. But this time she was confused. Her father had come home that day, she'd seen him come in the gates that morning, he had been coming home more often since the Chunin Exams actually._

_Every time she opened her eyes she always hoped her father would be there and he never was. She didn’t think it was too much to ask, she just wanted a father around. And hers never seemed to be around when she wanted him to be. Her mother must have noticed her face fall because she gave her a smile._

_“Sasuke is picking up some herbs for me, he’ll be back soon.” Her mood improved after hearing that, and Sakura continued. “He didn’t want to leave but I gently reminded him he can’t use medical ninjutsu.”_

_“Alright.” Her mother was trying to make her feel better but it wasn’t working as well as she knew her mother wanted it to. Because maybe Sasuke was here, but he wasn’t here. He’d pick up the herbs, confirm that she was alright, and then go back to whatever it is he needed to do at that moment._

_She sometimes thought she was more of an inconvenience to him. Despite what he’d told her, his actions said otherwise._

_“But while he’s gone…” Sarada didn’t like the sound of that. And when Sakura’s volume rose, she knew she was in trouble. “What were you thinking? Teaching yourself that jutsu? Why didn’t you ask your father for help?” She didn’t say what she was actually thinking. She didn’t say that she didn’t think her father would have helped her. She didn’t say that she was doing this because she felt like she had to prove herself to him. Instead she said:_

_“I wanted to get it on my own.”_

_“That was not the way to go about it. That jutsu is dangerous, especially when you consider the danger in lightning type jutsu. If something goes wrong you could stop your own heart.” Sarada just nodded, she knew the risks. But she wanted to learn the jutsu without help. She learned the hand signs, she was capable. “You’ve been running yourself ragged for weeks, and it’s dangerous, Sarada.”_

_“I know.” Sarada watched as her mother’s face changed, from one of anger and concern to one of confusion. Not that the volume of her voice changed in any way, simply the face she was making while she spoke._

_“If you know then why did you do it?”_

_“I need to get stronger!” And conveniently leave out the part where she felt like if she didn’t her father would continue to ignore her._

_“At the risk of your own health!?”_

_“I wasn’t going to die!”_

_“You don’t know that you’re going to die until it’s too late!” It was at this moment that Sasuke walked into the room._

_“What, exactly, did I miss?” His face suggested that he didn’t like what he’d walked in on._

_“Nothing.” Sarada got a glare from her mother before turning to face Sasuke._

_“Your daughter was trying to teach herself the Chidori. Without help.” Her father nearly dropped the herbs he was carrying. She watched the color drain from his face for a moment. But he composed himself quickly and brought the herbs over to his wife, who stood up and set to work getting them properly mixed._

_“Lightning is a dangerous element to work with if you’ve never used it before. And without a teacher the danger increases.”_

_“Mom basically already said that.” She got a raised eyebrow in response._

_“We also need to talk about how often you've been training.”_

_“We really don’t.”_

_“We really do. Konohamaru said you’ve been neglecting your own health needs for the sake of your training. Going nonstop until you collapse, not eating or drinking enough water, hell I never even see you come home and I'm wondering if you ever did this past week.” She wanted to retort, but had nothing to say. She wasn’t wrong, not really. She’d been focusing so much on training she wasn’t really coming home much these days._

_“That’s not healthy.” She shot a glare at Sasuke but said nothing to accompany it._

_“Overtraining can be damaging, especially if you aren’t eating right. Rather than build muscle you destroy it. You need to eat right for the destroyed muscle tissue to grow back stronger, if you aren’t eating that strength will be gone. And if you intend to continue to store your chakra you need that strength. And if you damage your body you can’t properly balance your body to build your chakra reserves to compensate.” She just sort of nodded as her mother spoke, it wasn’t that she didn’t understand, she just really wanted this conversation to be over._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

That conversation… How had she forgotten? She wasn’t limited to purging herself of food, she could slowly get unhealthier by ‘training’ as well. Sure she wasn’t going to be performing ninjutsu right now (it also occurred to her that he’d cut off her chakra flow to her forehead, she’d have to speak with her mom on how to remedy that later), but there were other things. Strength exercises and such that could be performed without chakra that she could do.

Whatever she could to lose weight and make her body uninhabitable for a baby would have to be done. Damn how this was going to affect her when she got out of this damn mess, there was no way she was letting this asshole get the Sharingan. So she got herself on the ground, and started with sit ups.

Daiki was not going to get his way. She wasn’t going to let him.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mitsuki was thinking he really should have known that this was where they were going.

Granted, no one had actually said it, but he should have realized that this was what they were talking about. It wasn’t often he saw his parent, and he certainly hadn’t planned on seeing him during this trip, but Sarada’s father was correct. Mitsuki’s father didn’t use all of his old hideouts, only a few, but every one of them besides this one looked fairly abandoned. if that asked for help they might get closer to finding Sarada.

So they went inside.

The inside was a maze, and Konohamaru and Boruto were looking around while trying to keep up with Sasuke. Mitsuki stayed in the back, keeping his eye on them. It wouldn’t be helpful to their search if Boruto and Konohamaru-Sensei went missing inside Mitsuki’s parent’s hideout right now. But they didn’t make it far before running into someone.

“Sasuke-kun!” They all looked up to see a red haired woman approaching them, a shocked look on her face. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to ask him a favor.” Mitsuki and Boruto were tired of the pronoun game for very different reasons. Boruto, because he truly had no idea who they were talking about and it was driving him crazy not knowing. Mitsuki because he _did_ know who they were talking about and couldn’t understand why it had to be such a huge secret. He already felt illegitimate enough without the help.

“A favor.” It didn’t come out as a question. More like a statement of disbelief.

“Yes. Where can I find him?”

“You don’t have to look very far.” Behind the red haired woman was a person, a person that three of the four newcomers recognized.

“Orochimaru.” Mitsuki was trying to make himself as small as possible, but it didn’t seem to be necessary. Orochimaru was more interested in Sasuke, and Mitsuki was fine with that. He didn’t want attention from his parent, not right now.

“Sasuke-kun, what brings you here today? I thought it would be much longer before I saw you again.” It was weird, hearing him call Sasuke ‘Sasuke-Kun’. But Sarada’s father didn’t even seem fazed. A little irritated perhaps, but that seemed to be his constant state at the moment so no one could tell if he was more irritated because of Orochimaru or not.

“I need information.” Orochimaru feigned shock.

“From me?”

“You’re the only one with this information.”

“Am I, now?” At this point, Sasuke was done playing and his voice made that very clear.

“Orochimaru-” It seemed even Orochimaru could hear the desperate pap-bear voice that the three men had been hearing since they left because his tone changed. It only took one word out of Sasuke for Orochimaru to realize his former student wasn’t going to hear the games today.

“What kind of information do you need?”

“It’s about your other hideouts.” That seemed to stop Mitsuki’s parent in his tracks. There were a number of those, obviously, but clearly Sasuke wanted specific information. They were gestured to follow him, and they did. Fairly soon, they were in a sitting room, one large enough for all of them to sit comfortably.

“What exactly am I going to be getting out of this, Sasuke-kun?” As much as Orochimaru knew that Sasuke wasn’t one to be messed with today, he didn’t give things out for free. He always required something.

“You won’t have to see my Chidori going down your throat,” the dark haired father growled in response.

“You know what I mean.”

“Just tell me what you want already, otherwise it will be happening.” Sasuke did not have time to deal with Orochimaru talking in circles. If he wanted something he needed to come out and say it, because the man’s patience was wearing incredibly thin.

“Well, there is one thing…” Sasuke’s sharingan was activated, his anger getting harder and harder to control. But he did manage to keep his words short and free from too many profanities.

“Just spit it out.”

“Rumor has it the land of Waves discovered some kind of… antidote. A good one. Supposed to work with most poisons. I need someone to check it out for me, and if it’s true I’ll need some to test for myself.” Sasuke didn’t even care why Orochimaru wanted some all inclusive poison antidote. It was probably a false rumor anyway, and it wasn’t an illegal request, so Sasuke didn’t care.

“Okay. I’ll get it. _after_ you help me.” He wasn’t negotiating on that. Sarada had to be found before he went on a hunt for the man. And it seemed like Orochimaru was finally done toying with him.

“What’s got you so worked up anyway?”

“It’s none of your concern.”

“I’d say it is if you need my help.” Sasuke paused for a moment, not sure if he wanted to say it or not. But something told him they wouldn’t get anywhere if he just kept arguing with Orochimaru.

“Sarada has been abducted and I think whoever has her is holding her in one of your old hideouts. I need to know which ones were more likely to be taken over for those purposes so I’m not searching every one of them.

“I see.” There was a momentary pause before he continued. “I think I can be of service to you.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Is the new place almost ready?” The room was silent aside from the two people talking. If they were to suddenly stop talking you could hear a pin drop.

“I estimate that we may only need another week for it to be complete.” With words alone, the men conversing could be confused for two normal people were it not for the setting of the conversation. 

“How soon do you think we should leave?” The second man seemed thoughtful for a moment before responding.

“Give it a few more days. My men may be able to throw the search parties off long enough to get us out of here.”

“And the odor neutralizers?”

“The supply arrived this morning.”

“Perfect. How long until they give up?” At this question, it seemed as though it was an answer he didn’t want to give. It likely wasn’t the answer that the questioner wanted to hear, but for full honesty it had to be said. And if he lied at any point it could throw off everything they were working towards and that wouldn’t do any of them any good.

“It may be a while, these are Konoha Shinobi after all.” That village was known for its ‘never give up’ attitude that drove them insane.

“Annoying.”

“We may have found a way to detain them should they get too close.”

“Without suspicion?”

“No guarantees, but it should work well enough.”

“Well it’s better than nothing.” At this point, a third voice joined the conversation, someone who had been listening nearby as they performed tests.

“There’s other news.” Both men turned to face the newcomer as he spoke.

“Good news I hope.”

“Yes. The girl’s hormone levels are fluctuating. She likely doesn’t suspect yet, but I think we were successful.” While they were definitely happy about this information, it was also shocking to hear. It wasn’t common to get results this quickly, the men had done their research after all.

“So soon?”

“It was always a possibility. Now of course, from here it could go either way, but I have a good feeling.”

“Perfect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is added in late, I wanted to give credit to CelticxPanda (the author of Melody from Another World), the birth control discussed in this chapter is based off of what she described more specifically in her story. Also a friend of mine helped me with Sasuke's "You won't have to see my chidori going down your throat" line. I think that's everything, don't mind me I'm a horrible person. XD


	8. Strong

**Day 22**

“What do you mean, we’re leaving?”

“I mean exactly that, Sara-Chan. This room… I think it might be too cramped for you. And where we’re going we can go outside, you’ll have more freedom to move around. I want you to be comfortable.”

“Where are we going?”

“You know I can’t risk telling you that. I want to trust you, my precious little Sarada, but your attempts to escape simply cannot be ignored. I’m sorry. Now, it’s best if you pack your things into these bags, we’re leaving in the morning.” Before she could say anything else he had turned and left. She looked around, this space that she’d gotten used to… She was certain they had to be near where she’d been taken from. Leaving meant she would likely never be found.

And she couldn’t deal with that.

She packed like she was told, but she had to figure out a way out of here. And perhaps traveling would be the best way to do it. They’d have to take her out of the room, out of the maze of corridors, she’d have to go outside. And from there she could escape. But just in case… As she was packing she went to her dresser. On the first day she’d seen a handheld mirror, and she knew that could be used later on if she needed it. But she wanted to make it as inconspicuous as possible.

Which meant hiding it in plain sight.

She tucked it in her suitcase among the clothes in a way that made it seem like she just wanted to keep the mirror from breaking. If anyone asked she just wanted to make sure her makeup looked flawless and it was easier to look up close with a handheld mirror as opposed to the one she had at the makeup table. Her needing glasses to see made that make sense anyway.

When everything was gathered, the things she wanted as well as the things she didn’t, she just sat on her bed and waited. She really hated being here, really wished there was something she could do about it, but they’d made it clear she wouldn’t be leaving this room. Though it was odd to her that they bothered barring her in when they intended to move her so soon afterwords. Perhaps she’d proven herself more of a threat than she realized.

And she couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

She didn’t like it, but at this point she couldn’t afford to remain so cooperative. She had to find a more suitable plan of action to get herself out of this. Especially considering the fact that they were moving her. She would never be found if they moved her and she knew that. They wouldn’t know where to look. Would likely have to get permission to enter other areas and while they would likely get the permission needed that still took time. Time she didn’t have. So it was up to her to escape.

After all her things were packed she sat on the bed she’d been using since her arrival and pulled her knees to her chest. She never wanted to see this room again, but not like this. She wanted to leave and go home. To never return to see any of these people again, and return to Konoha. But that wasn’t the case, and she didn’t know how to deal with that. She gripped her legs so hard she drew blood and she didn’t even notice. It wasn’t until she looked down and saw blood that she realized what she’d done and pulled back her hands. She sent what little chakra she could manipulate to the tiny wounds to heal them.

“Even if I escaped right now… Who would care?” She couldn’t help but mutter her own dark thoughts to herself. As time passed she had less and less faith in the people she’d grown up with. In her own teammates. In her own parents. Because she'd seen no sign that they were making an attempt to rescue her. And while she didn't want to believe what these people told her, they were the only connection she had to the outside world and what else could she really trust?

And really, what did he have to gain from lying to her about it? What did her self worth really mean to him? After all, she was just a baby factory. And with what he’d seen of her, did he really think it would keep her from escaping? It might prevent her from returning to Konoha, but that was different from preventing her from escaping. And hell, she might be safer somewhere other than her home village.

She pulled the blankets over her head, desperately trying to find a way to fall asleep. Despite being tired all the time, she just could find a way to sleep. It would take hours and she would still only get a couple of hours of sleep at a time. She was essentially taking glorified naps, and it was slightly annoying. She barely ate, she couldn’t sleep, she knew her body was slowly destroying itself because of her eating habits and her ‘training’ regimen, and still this sick freak wanted her because she had those damn eyes.

Her father’s eyes.

Was it too much to ask that she be left alone? She knew that her father had a troubled past, not that she knew all the gory details but now she knew more than her father had ever planned on her knowing about. But why did that have to effect her? Why couldn’t she be her own person? Why did everything have to be because of her parents?

_”Strong like Sakura.”_

_“Stubborn like Sasuke.”_

_“You’ll be a great medical ninja.”_

_“One day you’ll be just as powerful as your father.”_

It was exhausting being the daughter of Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. It was exhausting being related to war heroes. It was why she got along with Boruto in her own weird way was time had gone on. As they had gotten older they realized that connection and would occasionally take the time to just grips about how their expectations were blown way out of proportion because of their parentage. And at the same time how they felt all this pressure from everyone to be just as good as their parents.And most of it didn’t even come from their parents.

In Sarada’s case, it was more of an accident that she always felt the need to prove herself to her father. He’d never outright said it but she felt the need anyway, and she knew that was her own fault.

She groaned and pulled the pillow over her face. Wondering if, perhaps, she should leave it there. Just end everything right now. That would certainly prevent anyone from getting the Sharing that didn’t deserve it. And all of that pesky pressure she felt from herself and all the others would be gone. Damn what they thought of her taking the cowards way out, did it count if it prevented someone bad from getting ahold of one of the most powerful dojutsu’s known to man?

But she pulled the pillow off. It wasn’t worth it. Besides, she wanted to see the look on Daiki’s face when she ruined his plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very much aware that this is a pathetically short chapter but... I just felt really bad that In haven't updated this in a while. There's really no excuse it's not like I need to watch anything to update this. My time travel one requires me to watch Naruto Shippuden and trying to find it dubbed so I can multitask is difficult. Which means I'm putting off watching it. But as you can see, I am alive. And writing.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright guys, so hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Don't expect regular updates, I just really wanted to see what people thought of this. Besides, if I write it all out before it's posted I can't use feedback! I will try to update when I can, I have high hopes for this fic. I mean I've worked out a lot of what I think I want to happen in my head, but sometimes things change. If you have thoughts or ideas let me know, and I do give credit where credit is due so if you give me an idea or inspiration I'll include it in beginning chapter notes.
> 
> Bye for now!


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